The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Camellia plant, botanically known as Camellia japonica X Camellia changii, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘HA242’.
The new Camellia plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventors in Zhaoqing, China. The objective of the breeding program is to create new fast-growing Camellia plants that flower year-round and tolerate full sunlight.
The new Camellia plant originated from a cross-pollination conducted by the Inventors in October, 2006 in Zhaoqing, China of Camellia japonica ‘Collettii’, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with an unnamed seedling selection of Camellia changii, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Camellia plant was discovered and selected by the Inventors as a single plant from within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Zhaoqing, China in September, 2011.
Asexual reproduction of the new Camellia plant by grafting cuttings onto an unnamed selection of Camellia gaozhouensis, not patented, in a controlled greenhouse environment in Zhaoqing, China has shown that the unique features of this new Camellia plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.